Risky Bigness Investigating the dangerous cycle of yo-yo dieting
It makes you wonder: If these rich and famous with their personal trainers and private chefs, can’t win the weight war, what chance do I have?
By some estimates, more than 80 percent of people who have lost weight regain all of it, or more, after two years. Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles analyzed 31 long-term diet studies and found that about two-thirds of dieters regained more weight within four or five years than they initially lost.
Along with the emotional toll is a physical one: Not only is the extra weight a health risk, but recent studies have linked the gain-lose-gain cycle to such potentially life-threatening conditions as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, depression, heart disease, and cancer.
Understanding Metabolic Math
While small fluctuations on the scale are normal, the unhealthy behavior that experts refer to as “weight cycling” is not. Cycling is defined as a significant increase or decrease of body weight (generally 10 pounds or more) that occurs multiple times. Experts believe a yo-yo pattern is often the result of a diet that’s too restrictive, and a study reported in the journal Obesity backs that up: It found that people who followed a very low-calorie diet regained significantly more weight than those on a more forgiving plan. Desperate for quick results in a culture of instant gratification, women and men try to lose weight on diets with too few calories.
Even on a sensible diet, your body sheds pounds reluctantly. One reason it’s difficult to keep weight off is because there is a metabolic overcompensation for weight loss. If you decrease your body mass by 10 percent, you would expect your metabolic rate to decrease by 10 percent, but it actually slows down more than that. The body may perceive dieting as a threat to its survival. It might not know the difference between Atkins and famine!
Dr. Brownell, who coined the term “yo-yo dieting” in the 1980s, said that weight cycling can actually change your physiology. So the more diets you’ve been on, the harder it becomes to lose the weight.
What are the risks of the Yo-yo way
The more times you yo-yo, the theory goes, the more fat your body gains in each rebound - because muscle burns 10 times more calories than fat does, your metabolism eventually will slowdown. Losing and gaining regularly takes a huge toll on your body. Beyond aesthetics, regaining weight burdens your arteries and skeletal system, and may stress the liver, which can become covered in fat. Yo-yoing also does a number on your ticker: A study in Clinical Cardiology found that people who weight cycle five times or more during their lifetimes may be damaging their hearts in the process.
But perhaps most startling is the dangerous and lasting effect weight cycling has on the immune system. According to the first study of the long-term impacts of yo-yo dieting, people who repeatedly lost and gained weight had lower immune function, particularly lower counts of natural killer cells.
With so many drawbacks, you might wonder if you’d be better off just accepting your belly rolls. But the perils of being overweight still outweigh the risks of yo-yoing. So how do you quit the cycle for good? Despite what you read in the tabloids, it is possible.
Be realistic
Be active
Be patient
Don’t diet
And stick to a healthy, realistic lifestyle! Basta.
